


Rain

by 200_to_200



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-01 22:40:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6539407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/200_to_200/pseuds/200_to_200
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The rain would be here soon. The air always turned electric before a storm, and those who still went outdoors found cover as quickly as they could. When your skin began to feel the slight sting of it, and the hair on your arm stood on end you sometimes had minutes, sometimes as long as two hours before it hit. The one thing you couldn’t do was be out when it started. June sat inside, she barely went out if she could help it. The world was bleak now anyways, no point in being out there anymore. Where the grass was once full and green there was hardened dirt, packed and dead. Nothing would grow in the soil again. Where there was once art and life, destruction and death took over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The rain would be here soon. The air always turned electric before a storm, and those who still went outdoors found cover as quickly as they could. When your skin began to feel the slight sting of it, and the hair on your arm stood on end you sometimes had minutes, sometimes as long as two hours before it hit. The one thing you couldn’t do was be out when it started. June sat inside, she barely went out if she could help it. The world was bleak now anyways, no point in being out there anymore. Where the grass was once full and green there was hardened dirt, packed and dead. Nothing would grow in the soil again. Where there was once art and life, destruction and death took over.

The rain had started 5 years ago, but she could still remember what it was like before. She almost wished she couldn’t, it hurt to remember how everything was. June would love to see the colours again. Anything but the grey and black that now dominated the landscapes. So much of the world had been lost in so little time. When you didn’t think anything else could be lost the rain somehow found a way. With the first rainfall crops were heavily damaged, and bits of colour left the world. The paint on the houses began to peel and burn away. The trees began browning and dying. It had seemed then like a freak act of god, burning everything away.

The religious nuts set out to convert the world, claiming loudly that the reckoning was among them and the sinners of the world were burning as payment for their sins. “The lord is stripping us of our false idols!” they would protest. The second rainfall strengthened their resolve and they became a larger more vocal collection. People began to convert and flock to the churches. After a few more storms even the most devout began to burn.

The hospitals were overrun. People lined the halls, burning and screaming in pain. Even with extra emergency supplies being sent out all over the country the numbers of injured people were too great. The old and the weak went first. The pain was too great and the situation too dire to save them all. As people screamed and cried in the halls, the ones who the rain hadn’t touched yet were outraged at the lack of care their loved ones received. The body count was reaching horrendous numbers and people wanted answers. The doctors and nurses were crucified by the public for the death toll, as though they themselves had brought the rain. There weren’t a lot of doctors left anymore. There wasn’t a lot of anyone left anymore.

The rain had continued at least once a week for the last five years. The building materials that homes were made from back before the world had seen the rain couldn’t stand up against it. The paint went first, and then the structures began to burn away and crumble. People flocked to schools and churches first, those made of stone and old materials stood up longer than the newer buildings could. The demand there became too great as well. Fear and panic was taking over. This had been during the first year of the rain. The governments of the world had tried to keep things in order. They managed to keep people calm, even with the religious running around putting more fear in anyone they could. It only took six months for any attempts at order to fall apart. Those in charge were losing everything too. Many left what looked like a hopeless cause retaining order and fled with the others.

Science tried to keep up and find a solution, and many scientists were still doing that today. The fall of the internet, the loss of books, equipment, and labs to work in made their jobs much harder. Many wills broke as the bodies began to line streets. A hopelessness had taken over. The radios went dead, the reporters had nothing new to say. The rain was here, the rain burned everything, and it fell everywhere.

June had been fortunate enough to have a crazy neighbor. He had been strange to her family before the rain, a man who was always preparing for the end of days. They had lived in an upscale neighborhood, the residents there were bankers and lawyers and businessmen. They had beautiful wives, large homes, and over achieving offspring in tow. Doug had seemed to belong there too. He had a family fortune, and a bunch of degrees under his belt. He was smart. He was rich. He was handsome enough to get by. Doug didn’t start to seem out of place until he had a giant underground bunker put into his yard. He was always bringing things home to stock it. June’s family liked Doug anyways, and when he began to talk at length about his survival gear and how it worked, June’s parents listened with good manners. They would laugh about him in the privacy of their own home later on. Doug had been a loner, but he took to the family next door in a way he normally never would have. That’s why when things got really bad, when the houses began to crumble and fall all over, he invited them to stay in his bunker. They quit laughing. They had water, heat, and food. Commodities a lot of the population were losing quickly.

June smiled sadly at the memory of her parents. It has been 4 years since she had seen them last. They had moved into the bunker with Doug 5 months after the rain began. They had a sturdy home, and a deep basement that kept them safe from the rain for a while. Longer than many homes were able to keep standing anyways. It was at Doug’s insistence that they moved to the bunker with him. Looting and rioting were rampant and he told them the gated community they lived in would be hit as hard and fast as the others soon. At the time June was frightened at the thought of burglars and vandals just as much as she was the rain. She had only been 11 years old then. She longed to be that innocent again. 

“June?” Doug called out to her from the entrance to bunker. “Are you ready?” June sighed. “Yeah. Yeah. One second.” She scooped up her small pack with her few belongings inside. She shook herself back into reality, shrugging off the reverie she had been in thinking about years before now. Doug slammed the heavy metal door to the bunker closed and spun the wheel, locking it tight. “It’s going to start any time now” Doug told June. “C’mon, to the other room. Hop to it”. June headed through the low door that lead to a small attached room in the bunker. The main room was starting to break down, so they spent the duration of the rain falls in the smaller, more heavily reinforced room now. There wasn’t much in there anymore. A small cot along the wall. The few medical supplies they still had were in a large first aid kit next to it. The opposite walls were once lined with canned goods and “space food” as June had always called it. Those supplies were dwindling now too.

Doug followed behind June and sat himself down heavily on the cot. He sat forward with his elbows resting on his knees, his head hung between his hands. As he pulled his fingers through his hair he sighed. June slowly sat herself beside him on the cot. The springs squealed with their disapproval at the added weight. As June looked over at Doug her heart ached seeing how defeated he looked. “You should really let me cut your hair soon.” She stated. Doug smiled at that, pulling his long dirty brown hair towards his nose, over his eyes. “Yeah, I guess so hey.” June leaned over to grab her small pack from the spot on the floor she had set it down. She opened it and grabbed a small pair of silver clippers. “No time like the present.” She said, raising her eyebrows and snipping the clippers a few times for effect. “It’s not like we are going anywhere” Doug said with an eye roll. He lifted himself from the cot and sat himself on the floor in front so June could sit behind him slightly elevated. 

June got to work with the clippers. She has cut both of their hair ever since her parents left. It had been her mom’s job before. June thought sadly back to the days at the start when they had all been together. Everyone in the bunker taking their turns on the small chair in the main room while Helena quickly snipped away. Right now she looked down at the shaggy mess of hair in front of her and ran her fingers through it. Shaking it around like she was petting a shaggy dog. As she continued cutting she suddenly let out a small giggle. “What?” Doug asked, turning his head slightly. June jerked his head back into position. “Sit still!” she laughed. “I was just thinking about the first time YOU decided to cut our hair.” At that Doug laughed with her. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He said, drawn out with a hint of put on annoyance in his voice. “This arrangement is better I think we have both agreed.” She smiled and kept working. Doug started again, “You know, it’s not my fault your hair is so damn curly. How was I to know it was going to look like that when it dried?” June laughed loudly, making Doug smile at the sound. “I looked like the worlds ugliest show poodle!” June exclaimed. Doug followed that with “I thought it was more like Krusty the Clown myself. Do you remember him? From that old show, The Simpsons?” TV. Now that was a completely dead medium these days. “No. I don’t” June replied, no sadness in it, simply stating the truth. “Oh.” Doug answered. “Well, he had the same haircut. Well just about, equally as goofy.” June could hear the smile in his voice while he said it and lightly bonked him on the back of the head. “You didn’t look much better! Your hair looked like you had it done by a near sighted bum” June said. “Yeah….” Doug replied, petering off. “Yeah it did.” 

They sat in silence for a while, June turning Doug so she could get to the front of his head. They heard the rain starting and both looked towards the opening to the larger room across from them. Doug let out a long sigh. “It’s started” he pointed out unnecessarily. Doug put up a hand to signal June to stop cutting for a moment. He stood up and walked towards the opening between the rooms. He looked up towards the far corner of the bunker and huffed. June stood up and met him. She looked to where he was staring, and saw the smoky trail that was entering the room. Slowly another and another started along the wall. Doug turned to her. “We can’t stay here much longer June. It won’t hold forever. Hell, we probably shouldn’t be here now. Who knows what breathing that crap in will do to us in the long run.” He ran his hand up through his hair, catching only half a fist full between where it was cut short and where it was still long and shaggy. He was always tugging at it when he was stressed. June knew when he was more worried than usual with his long hair. The telltale signs of him pulling at it left his hair in a wild puff on top of his head. “Where will we go?” she asked him. Doug let out a sigh, “I don’t know kiddo. I just don’t know.”


	2. Chapter 2

Doug turned away from the doorway and sat himself back down in front of the cot. He looked up to see June still looking worried into the other room. He cleared his throat, “I am certainly not going anywhere looking like this.” He said pointing at his hair. June turned back and smiled. As she sat herself down on the cot she picked her little clippers up and continued on the front portion of his hair. 

June finished her last few cuts and admired her work. She took both her hands and roughly shook them around on Doug’s head, watching the little bits of hair fly off and land around him. “Hey, hey easy now.” Doug said, lifting his hands to stop hers moving. He got up with a grunt and walked towards the small mirror hanging beside the first aid kit. “Well hello handsome!” Doug said to his reflection, eyebrows wiggling. “Yes, I am a hair cutting genius.” June stated. “You’re sure you don’t want me to cut yours?” Doug teased. June pulled on the high pony tail on her own head. Her dark, coarse, curly hair an artful mess. “Hard pass, thanks” June grinned. 

Doug grabbed a back pack from the corner of the small room. It was grey and red and very dirty. A few burn marks here and there from times he’d set it down outside too soon after the rain. He pulled out one of the many notebooks he kept inside. Doug had been out scouting for a while, only going far enough to know he could make it back in time if the rain came suddenly. He sat back down beside June on the cot. He pulled a folded map out from between the pages and looked at it. There were markings all over the place. Big red X’s over some areas close to bunker. Green lines showing potential safe routes for them to take leading to green circles with question marks. As Doug sat and tried to stare a hole through the map, June stood up and walked over to where the back pack was. Behind it, leaning against the wall was her guitar. They didn’t have many “non-survival” possessions in the bunker, but this one was Junes. 

She carried the instrument back to the cot and started to play lightly, just plucking away at the strings. She wasn’t playing anything in particular, just making soft sounds that melded together nicely. The strings were old and worn. They wouldn’t play their true notes anymore, but it’s what she had so she worked with it. 

The guitar had been her dads. June thought back to the night years ago when he first brought it into the bunker. It was back when it was still safe to run between the houses and quickly grab anything that wasn’t destroyed from their home. The four of them, Doug, June, and her parents, had been sitting quietly in the main room. The air was stuffy and sad, drawing on the energy of the people there. June thought of how when she looked over at her dad, his eyes lit up. “I’ll be right back!” he said suddenly, excitement behind his words. “Where are you going Dion?” Helena asked, with a hint of her Irish accent coming through. Dion looked back at her from the bottom of the stairs that led to the only entrance or exit to the bunker. His blue eyes radiating towards his wife, a stark and beautiful contrast against his dark skin. “It’s a surprise.” He said as he smiled at the people in the room. “I’ll only be gone a second.” With that he turned and walked up the stairs. They watched as he left and turned towards each other, Helena’s one eyebrow raised comically high. 

As promised, Dion returned only five minutes later with his acoustic guitar slung across his back. Helena beamed at her husband, “You are a brilliant man Dion. Absolutely brilliant!” her words were full of adoration. “I am aware.” He responded as he walked towards her, placing a kiss on top of her head. He nuzzled into her curly red hair for a moment before pulling away and turning to June. “Any requests sweet heart?” he asked. June thought for a moment. She knew her dad didn’t know any of the “mindless radio drivel” that she usually listened to. With her eyebrows furrowed she thought hard, but then she knew exactly what she wanted to hear. “How about tell me ma?” June asked. At that her dad started to strum on the guitar, and her mum started to sing. 

“I'll tell me ma when I go home,  
The boys won't leave the girls alone.  
They pulled my hair, they stole my comb,  
But that's all right 'til I go home.  
She is handsome, she is pretty,  
She's the belle of Belfast City,  
She goes courtin', a one, two, three  
Please won't you tell me who is she?”

June and Doug sat back watching and listening. June loved this song, especially when her mom sang it. Helena’s accent was normally very subtle from years of being away from home. When she sang it came out clear, and June loved the sound of it.

The first time her mum sang this song for her was in grade two. Some of the boys in June’s class were being mean to her. When she got home that day she cried to her mum and told her all about it. Helena had gone down on one knee in front of June and wiped a fallen tear from her cheek. “Boys can be quite dumb.” Her mum told her then. June choked out a laugh, rough from crying, but genuine. Her mum was so funny, she could always make June laugh. “Go grab your father’s guitar will you? I have a song to sing you.” June remembers running to her dad’s office and carrying the giant guitar back to the kitchen for her mum. 

June glanced down at the instrument in her hands. It wasn’t so big anymore.

Helena played and sang for her. June felt like she was the prettiest girl in the world while she listened. She also thought that mum was right, boys are dumb.  
June realized then she had started strumming the song she was thinking about. She looked over and saw that Doug had stopped what he was doing to watch her play. June played past the part where the singing normally began, and Doug looked at her quizzically. “Aren’t you going to sing?” he asked her. She stopped playing for a moment and sighed. As she turned her face to Doug’s her eyes grew sad. “It’s not the same when I sing it. Mums voice was perfect for it.” She paused. “I can’t sing it without putting on her accent. I feel like a fraud when I do it.” Doug looked at her lovingly and told her, “You aren’t a fraud you silly thing. Please, I would like to hear the song. It’s been a long time.” June huffed. “Ok. But don’t make fun of me if I sound like a leprechaun.”  
With that, she started the song again. This time she sang. 

“I'll tell me ma when I go home,  
The boys won't leave the girls alone.  
They pulled my hair, they stole my comb,  
But that's all right 'til I go home.  
She is handsome, she is pretty,  
She's the belle of Belfast City,  
She goes courtin', a one, two, three  
Please won't you tell me who is she?”

She glanced at Doug, who was smiling with all of his teeth. Doug didn’t think she sounded like a leprechaun at all. She sounded just like her mum. 

As the song ended Doug began to clap. June took a little bow, really just a nod of her head. Things grew quiet, so June began to strum nonsense again. Doug had turned back to his work on the map. After a while June asked Doug softly, “When we go. Do you think? Do you think we might find them? My parents I mean.” Doug tensed up. He locked his eyes with Junes. With his most solemn voice he told her, “I really hope we do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song in this chapter is an old children's song called "I'll Tell Me Ma" or "The Wind". It has been used in many places and they change the location in the song. It has also been preformed by lots of people. I recommend checking it out.


	3. Chapter 3

The rain stopped after about 40 minutes, which was average for the rains these days. June and Doug stayed in the smaller room until they were sure it was over. The wall had stopped leaking out its most likely poisonous steam. Doug turned to June, “You are going to need to start joining me outside. We need to get a plan together.” He sighed, “Tomorrow though, for tonight I’m bagged.” 

He walked into the main room and flopped himself into the small recliner he had brought into the bunker after he realized they needed more space for people to sleep. Doug originally brought it in for Helena. Doug and Dion had slept on small roll out pads on the floor. The cot in the smaller room was were June slept. Almost as soon as Doug sat down in the recliner he was softly snoring. June watched him there for a while from her spot on her cot. 

She was grateful to have Doug. He provided a safe place for her family during a hard time, even though he had no obligation to help them. After her parents left and didn’t return, he took over for them with June the best he could. He didn’t have any experience with kids, and it was rough for the first while. June had been 12 years old when it became just the two of them. There were the things he expected, mood swings and boredom. He did the best he could to keep up with her ever changing personality. He was clueless as to what he was supposed to be doing. He suddenly had the responsibility of raising her on his own. Then there was the harder stuff Doug wasn’t prepared for. Dealing with the anger and sadness that came from the loss of her parents. Doug had been raised in a healthy home, with supportive loving parents. He had never been through anything like what June was experiencing. 

Doug did have a sister growing up, which he thanked his parents for every day that it was just him and June. His sister, Lily, had been a handful growing up. A complete and total diva. She was older than Doug by 4 years. When Doug was born Lily suddenly had a friend to play with. As a little boy he was put into his fair share of dresses and Lily liked to practice her ‘makeup artistry’ on him. He adored his big sister and was just happy she would play with him. He didn’t care if she wanted to dress him up, as long as he got to hang out with her and be involved.  
As they got older Lily would confide in her brother. He heard tales from her school life, and all the drama that came with it. Lily was expressive, and tended to exaggerate her stories wildly. He listened to her talk about boys, which were “so hot!” and which were “totally gross.” He knew about all the school clicks and was a shoulder for his sister when it was her turn to be the odd girl out. Everything Doug knew about teen aged girls he learned from Lily. 

One thing Doug had missed however was the details on the transition between being a girl and becoming a woman. As far as that went, all he had was what he retained from health class in school. Lily always kept him blissfully ignorant of the changes she was experiencing in her body. Doug had never thought to prepare June for what was coming, and didn’t realize that Helena was gone before she ever had a chance to talk to June about it. June was 14 when he suddenly heard her scream from behind the shower curtain that provided privacy to the bathroom area of the bunker. June had been horrified and embarrassed. Doug was right there with her, completely unequipped to deal with her tears and confusion from what her body was doing. He frantically dug through the toiletries Helena had left behind, and was relieved when he found the pack of Always pads inside. He had quickly grabbed a change of clothes for June and passed them, along with the pads, through the curtain to her. He calmly explained what she was supposed to do from the other side of the thin make shift wall. When June finally came out from the ‘bathroom’ she had a tightly wrapped ball of her shorts and under ware clutched her chest. Her eyes swollen from crying, and turned down towards the floor. 

Doug slowly reached out to take the clothing from her. June was hesitant, but she eventually passed them to him. She muttered a small, sad, “I’m sorry.” Doug took the clothes and brought June in for a hug. “It’s ok.” He told her, “I can explain it to you. Don’t be sorry.” 

Up until that point Doug felt like an estranged uncle, doing his best to keep up. Right then was when he suddenly understood he was a parent. Doug held out hope that one day Helena and Dion would return, but he knew it was a long shot. This small girl he was holding was his now. His to care for, his to raise. The weight of his realization was heavy. Somehow though it also seemed to lighten his heart. He knew right in that moment that there was nothing he wouldn’t do for June. Come hell or high water he would raise her to be the best she could be, even in these weird toxic times. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

June put her guitar away and laid herself back on her cot. She was afraid to go back outside, even if she knew she had to go. She had been out before, but almost never far from the entrance of the bunker. She hated seeing the skeletal remains of their homes. She hated the bleak environment around them. When she was small the grass was green. There were trees with birds that sang, and flowers in the gardens. Everything was dead now. She shuddered at the memory of the one time she went further up the road. Doug had been a few lots over, digging through the homes there to find anything salvageable. She was curious. As she walked up the slowly deteriorating road way she saw mostly nothing. Nothing but broken homes and dead plant life. She remembered walking towards a tree in one of her neighbor’s front yards. The large branches that had broken off laying haphazardly around it. She saw as she got closer the bones of the birds that used to sing there. It shook her up badly. She decided to cut through the neighbor’s yard to get back to the bunker faster. As she rounded the corner her eyes fell on a much larger pile of bones, wrapped in tattered shreds of clothing. The worst was the skull. The hollow eyes and open jaw staring up at her. Large holes were worn through the top of the head, and small bumps and grooves were left where the rain fell on it. She broke into a run. She couldn’t get back to the safety of the bunker fast enough. 

As she ran towards the bunker, Doug was just coming back to meet her. He told her to slow down and asked what was wrong. She told him what she had seen, doing her best to hold back her tears, but they fell from her eyes anyways. June half asked, half begged Doug to move the bones. To bury them. He said he would. Doug took June back inside the bunker and grabbed a shovel. He told her he would be back and that it would be ok. When Doug told her things would be ok, she believed him.

June pulled her pony tail out and ran her fingers through her hair. She massaged her temples, trying to usher away the memory. She didn’t want to see more bones. She knew the reality was that people were caught in the rain. That people were dying. She had seen Doug grab his shovel many times, and she knew what he was doing. He didn’t want her to see them either. Mostly she was scared they would find her parents. She never truly allowed herself to believe they were dead. She felt she would be happier with that question left unanswered. 

June rubbed her eyes, and turned to face the wall. Tomorrow she was leaving the bunker. She knew she needed the rest. She didn’t know what they were going to see, she could worry about that tomorrow. She wouldn’t be alone at least, she reassured herself. Doug would be there, and he knew what he was doing outside. It was going to be ok. Things had to change. They couldn’t stay here forever. She let herself drift towards sleep, pushing away the frightening thoughts with some of her happier memories. She was dreaming of her old yard, of her swing set. Of her dad pushing her on the swing and that feeling like she was flying.


End file.
